Barriers to the Use of Standard Precautions for Infection Control in Long Term Care Facilities: An Integrative Literature Review.

Barriers to the Use of Standard Precautions for Infection Control in Long Term Care Facilities.

Uyiosa Chu

Research Advisor: Michelle Neuman

College of Science & Health.

Background: Infection control is essential in long term care facilities (LTCFs) and the practice of standard precaution (SP) remains the main stay at reducing the rate of transmission of infectious diseases. However, compliance with the guidelines remain unacceptably low.

Objective: To identify the barriers that limit the use of standard control precautions in LTCFs and to evaluate how current measures address these barriers in order to improve compliance.

Methods: An integrative literature review was conducted to identify the barriers to the use of SP. Databases used include: CINAHL, HealthSource and, PubMed. Keywords include: infection, long-term care facilities, barriers, obstacles, prevention practices, standard precaution, control measures.

Results: The identified barriers preventing the use of standard infection control precautions in LTCFs were identified and grouped under three categories: (1) psychological barriers, (2) physical barriers, and (3) resource barriers. Overall these facilities lacked functional infection control programs with no administrative support to strengthen the institution’s commitment to the fight for infection control.

Conclusion: Identified barriers were perception that protective equipment is inconvenient and interferes with work sills, shortage of protective equipments and the absence of dedicated trained onsite infection control professionals. Staff education and organizational commitment to proper infection control program were identified as interventions that promote adherence. The development of an adaptable curriculum, and trained infection control professionals will help improve compliance to SP measures.